


The Water Tower

by BonitaBreezy



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Complete, Fake Relationship, Get Together, Gift Fic, M/M, Mentions of homophobia, Mentions of past suicidal thoughts, Phil's high school reunion, also Phil's OC of a twin sister, even though there's not as much of that as there should be, use of homophobic slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 09:10:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1935144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonitaBreezy/pseuds/BonitaBreezy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil has very few good memories of high school.  When he gets roped into going to his high school reunion, he brings his friend Clint along to act as his boyfriend in hopes that the weekend won't be completely awful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Water Tower

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kisleth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kisleth/gifts).



> This is for Kees who wanted fic for her birthday! Unfortunately in her time zone I am late and I missed it. However in my time zone it is only 9:55 and that's totally excusable! Sorry it's late, and that's unbeta'd, and that it's not the best thing I've ever written. I hope you enjoy it anyway. Happy Birthday!

Most vivid amongst the memories of his hometown was the water tower that stood a few hundred yards from the train tracks that lined the backyard fences of the houses on the edge of town.  Phil had lived in one of those houses, a cream-colored one with pale blue shutters, and around age fifteen he’d discovered that slipping out the fence’s back gate, crossing the train tracks, and climbing up the single ladder to the tower’s platform was the best kind of solemn adventure.

Phil had learned a lot about himself on that water tower.  He’d made many decisions up there on that platform, both good and bad, that had made his life what it was.  For the most part, he didn’t regret them.  That water tower had been crucial to Phil’s life as a teenager, and when he thought of his childhood home, that’s where his brain always went.  

Perhaps that was why he was so disconcerted by the invitation laying on the coffee table in front of him.  His sister had clearly forwarded it to him, since Phil knew for a fact that no one could ever associate his name with his address unless SHIELD had allowed it.  The letter had come in a thick cream-colored envelope, the kind that tried to look expensive but somehow failed.  Inside had been a piece of cardstock embossed with his high school’s crest and an invitation to his twenty year high school reunion.  His peaceful times up on that water tower never seemed to connect entirely in his brain with the turbulence of high school and the invitation was almost like a startling reminder that the two things coexisted.  The only reason that he hadn’t thrown it right in the trash was because the bigger envelope that it had been sent in had come with a note.

_“You’re not allowed to back out this time, brother dear.  NO EXCUSES.  Call me when you get this -Janie”_

Phil heaved a long-suffering sigh and grabbed his phone, dialing his sister’s number from memory.  The phone rang three times before it was answered by a little girl’s voice.

“Hello, Calloway residence, this is Madison speaking!” the answer sounded as rehearsed as it clearly was, and Phil couldn’t help but smile.

“Hi, Madison, it’s Uncle Phil,” he started, and was immediately interrupted by a squealed greeting.  “Is your mom around?”

“One sec,” she said, and then hollered, “Mom! Uncle Phil’s on the phone!”  Phil winced and held the phone slightly away from his ear, but he could still hear Janie in the background scolding Madison for yelling.

“Did you get it?” Janie asked when she had the phone.

“Hello, sister dear, so lovely to talk to you,” Phil responded dryly, and he could practically see her eyes rolling.

“Fine, yes, hello, Phil, how are you, great, now did you get it or not?”

Phil sighed dramatically and leaned back against the couch. “Now, Jane, think of the example that you’re setting for Madison…”

“Phil…” her tone was the warning one that she used on her kids, and also the same one that their mother had used on them when they were children.

“Yeah, okay, I got it.  I don’t think I’m going to go, Janie.”

“What?” she interrupted. “Phil you have to go!  It’s our twenty year reunion!”

“So what?” he retorted bluntly. “I didn’t like most of the people we went to school with when we were teenagers, why would I waste my time to fly out to Illinois so I can get judged by them all again?”

“It’s like a revenge thing!” Janie crowed, as if she had found some chink in his armor. “You go back and show them how awesome you are now!”

“Janie, you are literally the only person who thinks I’m awesome,” Phil sighed, even though that wasn’t exactly true.  He did have most of the junior agents convinced that he was the most badass person on the planet, but it wasn’t like he could go flaunting his life’s work as a high-ranking agent of an incredibly secret intelligence organization to his old high school classmates.

“That’s not true!” Janie insisted. “You’re plenty awesome, Phil…”

“I’m a 38 year old balding, gay accountant whose only relationship is with his paperwork,” Phil said flatly.

“What happened to that one guy?  What was his name…”

“Marco and I broke up over a year ago,” Phil snorted. “We hardly dated for two months.”

“You never tell me these things,” Janie complained. “But who cares if you’re not dating anybody? You should come anyway, it’ll be fun!  Don’t you want to see Jake Decker?  You guys were really close for a while…”

“That’s because we were secretly meeting up and making out after school until John Spencer saw us and he told him that I was some sort of gay predator who forced myself on people.” Phil rubbed his temples to try and ward away the tension headache building up there.

“Oh, right,” Janie said quietly. “That was awful.”  Phil nodded even though she couldn’t see him and then turned to look over his shoulder as the front door opened and Clint let himself in.  He had a messenger bag strapped over his nicely sculpted chest, which his thin t-shirt did nothing to hide, and a large paper-bag clutched in one hand.  He raised the paper bag up and waggled his eyebrows at Phil, who snorted softly and gestured with his head for Clint to make himself comfortable.

“I know high school wasn’t the best time of your life, Phil, but I still think you should come.  Maybe it’ll be some sort of closure?”

“You just really don’t want to go alone, do you?” Phil sighed.  Clint had started pulling cartons from the paper bag and setting them on the coffee table, and Phil knew for sure that he’d already read the invitation that was still lying there.  He put his phone on speaker and rested it on his knee so that he could grab the closest carton to him, which turned out to be beef lo mein.  His stomach was growling just from the smell of it.

“I really don’t,” Janie sighed. “Every time I go to mom’s house alone she starts talking to me about ‘getting back in the field’ and ‘all the nice young men aren’t going to be single forever, Jane’.  As if I didn’t just finalize my divorce six months ago.”

Janie’s divorce had been long, dragged out, and nasty.  It had taken two and a half years to resolve the custody issue before the divorce itself could be finalized, and Phil knew it had taken it’s toll on her and the kids alike.  He felt vaguely guilty about that, and he knew that she was manipulating him a bit, but he had to admit it was working.

“Jane,” he sighed. “I really don’t want to do this.”

“Why?” Jane demanded. “Because you don’t have some cute man candy to show off and prove that your life didn’t suck beyond high school?”

Phil could feel his face heating up as Clint cocked an eyebrow at him, and he tried really hard to keep from blushing.  Humiliating as the conversation was, it was even more so because Clint, the man who he’d been harboring a completely inappropriate and unrequited crush on for the better part of five years, was privy to it.

“If you’re that worried about it why don’t you just pull a Pretty Woman and order a pretty boy to stand in as your boyfriend for the weekend?”  Clint choked on his mouthful of rice and started coughing, and Phil idly wondered if it was possible for the couch to swallow him whole.  

“Jesus, Janie,” Phil complained, glancing at Clint to make sure that his hacking coughs were getting to be under control.

“Is someone there with you?” she asked as Clint started catching his breath.

“Yes, my friend, Clint,” Phil said. “So as you can see I really should be getting off the phone…”

“Oh no you don’t, Phillip Coulson,” Janie said, and she sounded so much like their mother that Phil froze in his tracks. “You are not getting off this phone until you promise me that you are coming to our high school reunion.  Clint!  Tell him he has to go to his high school reunion!”

“Yeah, Phil, why don’t you go to your high school reunion?” Clint interjected, grinning at Phil like the little shit that he was.

“See!” Janie crowed, as if she had won some all-important victory.  Honestly, Phil was so tired of arguing about it that he was just about ready to give in anyway, but part of him stubbornly clung to the hope that Janie would drop it.

“I don’t want to go because I’m a boring middle-aged paper pusher who lives alone,” Phil snapped. “It’ll just be proving everything they thought about me in high school correct!”  He kind of hated himself for caring so much about what these unimportant people thought of him, but he did.

“I’ll be your boyfriend,” Clint said, and Phil almost pinched himself to test if he was dreaming.

“What?” he and Janie demanded at the same time.

“I’ll be your boyfriend, for the weekend,” Clint volunteered, his smile small, awkward, and uncertain. “I mean...if it would help you out, I don’t mind.”

“Clint…” Phil started to protest, but was quickly washed out by Janie.

“Perfect! Then it’s settled, you’re going!  Clint I don’t know you, but you are my new favorite person!  I’m looking forward to meeting you!” Janie hung up then, as if that sealed the deal, and Phil supposed that it did, really.  He groaned softly and beat his head against the back cushions of the couch.

“I’m sorry if I just screwed you over,” Clint offered quietly. “I was trying to be helpful.”

“No, it’s okay,” Phil sighed, staring up at the ceiling.  “She was probably going to talk me into it anyway.  And you don’t have to do this, by the way.  It’s a lot to ask.”

“You didn’t ask, I offered,” Clint said. “And anyway, I’m kind of looking forward to seing where you come from.  I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable…”

“No,” Phil interupted quickly, lifting his head to look Clint in the face. “No, I’m not uncomfortable with it at all.  But if you change your mind at any time and decide you don’t want to do this anymore, then that’s it, and you’re done, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Clint said, and he returned to eating.  They sat in silence for a few minutes until Phil offered a soft ‘thanks’, to which Clint responded with a grin.

* * *

 

The delayed receiving of the invitation had left them little time to prepare, but by some miracle Nick had given them both leave, all the while fixing Phil with a stare that clearly said this was the dumbest plan ever.  Phil privately agreed with him, but he couldn’t deny he was really looking forward to getting to casually touch Clint like he’d always wanted to.  This was probably all going to go so badly, but he was desperate enough to do it anyway.

The flight to Illinois had gone easily and quickly, and the drive from the airport to Phil’s childhood home had been just as simple.  But now they were parked in the driveway behind his mother’s ridiculous light pink Cadillac and Phil suddenly felt like everything was about to go terribly wrong.

“You okay boss?” Clint asked.  He wasn’t making any move to get out of the car, still slouched in a comfortable position with his knees spread obscenely wide.

“Yeah,” Phil answered, though it was pretty clear he wasn’t. “I just...being back here is always a little hard for me, I guess.”

“I won’t judge you if you decide you want to abort mission,” Clint offered, carefully not looking at Phil. “We can go back to the airport right now and be in New York by dinner time.”

“No,” Phil sighed as the front door opened. “Even if I did want to, it’s too late now.  Janie’s seen us.”  His sister poked her head out the front door and he could see the grin erupt across her face.  She’d aged a bit more gracefully than he had, probably because she was a Kindergarten teacher and he’d had no less than six bullets removed from him over the years.  Her mousy brown hair had yet to give in to any gray streaks, but the crows feet that were starting to show at the edges of her eyes betrayed her age just a bit.

“Wow, she looks just like you,” Clint said, surprised.

“Twins do that, sometimes,” Phil answered dryly, even though they obviously weren’t identical and therefore could have looked as different as night and day.

“Huh,” Clint said, shifting in his seat a bit. “I didn’t know you had a twin.  It makes sense, because you graduated together, but I just didn’t put it together?”

Phil didn’t have a chance to answer because Janie had made her way to the car and pulled his door open.

“What are you doing sitting around in the car?” she demanded. “Get out and hug me!”  Phil sighed dramatically and unbuckled his seatbelt so that he could do as his sister commanded.  She was only a bit shorter than him, so their cheeks pressed together when they hugged and he could smell her soft perfume.  It smelled like home, and he found himself relaxing into her tight hold.

They probably hugged a little longer than was necessary, and when they finally pulled away from each other, Clint was leaning against the side of the car and watching them with a small smile.

“Sorry,” Phil said quickly, and Clint shrugged to show it wasn’t a big deal. “Clint this is my sister Janie, Janie, this is Clint.”

“Wow!” Janie said, looking full at Clint for the first time, who seemed a little taken aback by her exclamation.  He’d been reaching out to shake her hand, but faltered a bit.

“You are _incredibly_ gorgeous,” Janie said, and Phil felt his own face flush in tandem with Clint’s.  Clint recovered well, though, and pasted on a cocky smile as Janie finally shook his hand.

“Don’t flirt with my fake boyfriend,” Phil admonished, feeling a bit like a dick when Clint’s smile dimmed a bit.  He hoped it was just because he liked getting compliments and not because he remembered that he was supposed to be fake-dating Phil.  Or, even worse, because he was about to start flirting with Janie.  It would be entirely like Phil’s life to bring the guy he was halfway in love with home and have that guy want his sister.

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud,” Janie shot back.  She looped her arm through Clint’s and started tugging him towards the house.  Clint glanced bemusedly over his shoulder at Phil, who just waved him off and went to retrieve their bags from the trunk.  Phil’s bag was small and economical, packed for two nights and two days, but Clint’s was a little bit larger and heavier.  Phil suspected that there was at least one quiver of arrows in there, along with his bow.  Clint always had at least one gun and a few knives on him, but even so it was hard to get him to travel without the bow.  Was he likely to need it in a sleepy suburb of Chicago?  Probably not.  That didn’t mean he didn’t feel better to have it nearby.

By the time Phil had hauled the bags inside, Clint was already talking to his mother as if they were old friends.  Apparently she was making a late lunch, and Clint had asked if he could help, because she was holding his cheeks and telling him what a nice boy he was.  Clint looked a bit like he wasn’t sure what he’d just gotten himself into, but when she asked him to check on the cornbread he hopped right to it.

“Hello, Phillip,” his mother greeted when she turned toward him, holding her arms out for a hug.  As they hugged, Clint pulled a perfectly golden-brown corn bread from the oven and set it on top of the chopping block on the counter.

It was all a bunch of awkward getting-to-know-you and catching-up talk after that.  Apparently Phil’s mother was under the impression that Clint really was his boyfriend, and she seemed so pleased by it that Phil didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth.  She’d already invited them both home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, and told Clint that she was glad her son had “found such a lovely young man”.  All in all it was pretty excruciating, but Clint handled it well, and by the time they’d gone upstairs to “take a nap” before the reunion dance that night, he had had both Phil’s mother and sister utterly charmed.

“So am I gonna get to see your childhood bedroom?” Clint asked giddily as they headed up the stairs. “Is it wallpapered with Captain America’s face?”  Phil rolled his eyes at him, trying to show him exactly how unimpressed he was.  It didn’t curb Clint’s grin.

“You’ll get to see the room, yes,” Phil answered. “But it’s just a guest room now.  It’s not like my mother kept a shrine to my teenaged self.”

Clint looked disappointed by that, so Phil added, “and the wallpaper was his shield, not his face.”

Clint crowed with laughter the rest of the way up the stairs, and then cackled some more when he found out that the wallpaper had never actually been replaced.  The furnishings of the room were all different, with a large queen-sized bed against one wall and dark wooden bedside tables on either side.  The curtains were no longer the bright red ones of his youth, but now a deep blue that matched the bed clothes.  The carpet had been replaced at some point, probably due to the large grape juice stain that had been on the old one since Phil was twelve, and so the only remnant that proved the room used to belong to Phil was the old white wallpaper dotted with small Captain America shields.

He crossed over to the window and was relieved that he could still see the top of the old water tower poking up over the trees.  They’d replaced it with a new one on the other side of town a few years ago, and part of him had been afraid that they’d tear the old one down.  It was silly, of course, but Phil felt attached to the slightly-rusted old structure, and it would just seem so wrong to look out his bedroom window and not see it there.

“So, hey, I think I’m actually gonna take a nap,” Clint said when he was finished laughing.  He was already kicking off his shoes and surveying the bed.

“I am too,” Phil admitted, even though they both knew the nap thing had been an excuse to escape all the questions. “They mean well, they’re just kind of...exhausting.”

“They’re nice!” Clint said quickly. “Just I guess I’m not used to it?”

“I understand,” Phil said, smiling at Clint just to reassure him that Phil wasn’t offended or anything.  He knew how tiring his mother and sister could be when they were paired together.  He sat on the edge of the bed and untied his shoes, unwilling to destroy the backs of them by kicking them off like Clint did.  He felt the bed shift as Clint climbed in behind him, and tried to force down the butterflies in his stomach.  They’d shared plenty of beds on ops before, of course, but this was different.  This was his childhood bedroom, where he’d spent many a teenage year dreaming about one day being able to bring a boy.

Now here was Clint, more perfect than Phil could have ever imagined, and it was all a lie.  So he couldn’t let his feelings get out of control over this.  He had to keep his head together and remember that this whole thing was because, as a full grown adult, he wasn’t emotionally capable of facing the people he’d gone to high school with.  It was all pretty pathetic.

Phil sighed quietly to himself and then carefully arranged himself on his back.  Despite all the anxieties in his head, he really was pretty tired, and he fell asleep in minutes.

* * *

 

“Can you believe that they’re having the reunion in the school gym?” Janie complained as they pulled into the teacher’s parking lot in Phil’s rental car. “Way to go all out, right?”

“They probably got the gym for free,” Phil said as he turned into a parking space about halfway back. “And it’s not like we had a huge graduating class anyway.”

“Still,” Janie said, crossing her arms over her chest. “They could have put in a little effort.”  Phil rolled his eyes affectionately and got out of the car.  Clint was shifting a bit uncomfortably, even though he was just wearing slacks and a nice lilac-colored button-up shirt that wasn’t even buttoned up all the way.  He was much more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, but Phil couldn’t imagine that what he was wearing now could be much more uncomfortable.  It was clearly tailored to fit him, and it looked really, really good.

Phil was just wearing one of his nicer every day suits, but had forgone a tie when Janie told him it made him look too buttoned up, like a stuffy old accountant.  He’d reminded her that he was a stuffy old accountant (at least as far as she knew) but had eventually given in and left the tie behind.  Janie looked beautiful, of course, wearing a black dress with purple high heels that almost perfectly matched Clint’s shirt.  They looked like the perfect couple, standing next to each other, and Phil fought to remind himself that Clint was his date tonight, fake or not.

As if Clint could read his mind, he slipped his arm comfortably around Phil’s waist as he came around the car, his hand settling hot and intimate against Phil’s hip.

“This okay?” he asked, and Phil nodded, not trusting himself to speak.  Janie cast him a look that clearly said he was an idiot, though Phil wasn’t exactly sure why.  He just glared back at her until she looked away.

The gym doors were propped open and Phil could already hear the Best of 1982 streaming from the speakers.  Let’s Groove by Earth Wind and Fire was playing when they got in the door, and Phil suddenly found himself feeling like a teenager again, back in his old school gym with a ton of people crowded inside.  There was a large buffet table to one side, as well as groups of tables for people to sit and eat at.  The other half of the gym was reserved for dancing space, though now one was out there yet. The lights were low and there was a disco ball hanging from the rafters.  It was kind of ridiculous.

“1982,” Clint said, reading the large numbers off a banner on the wall. “I was nine.”

“I was not,” Phil answered, and Clint laughed.

“This looks just like it does in the movies, doesn’t it?” Clint said.  He seemed oddly pleased by this. “Is this what school dances were like too?”

“Exactly like this,” Phil confirmed, though he had only ever gone to the homecoming dance in his Freshman year. “People just standing around awkwardly talking, and at some point people will get bored and dance.”

“Huh,” Clint said, glancing around.

There was a folding table set up immediately inside the door with a cheerful woman in a bright yellow dress that really did nothing for her sitting behind it.  She had a large brooch shaped like a cat pinned to the front of her dress, and Phil knew who she was immediately.

“Hi Susan,” he greeted.  She blinked at him but didn’t lose her big smile.

“Phil Coulson, as I live and breathe!” she exclaimed. “Don’t you look exactly the same!”  Phil certainly hoped that he didn’t still look like an awkward seventeen year old, but he just smiled tightly.

“Susan, this is my boyfriend, Clint Barton,” he said, halfway pleased and halfway worried about how easily that lie rolled off his tongue. “Clint, this is Susan Monroe.”

“Hi, good to meet you!” she said cheerfully, and Clint echoed her.  She gave them their name tags and then stood up to hug Janie when she realized she was there.  Susan had always been very kind, friendly, and cheerful.  Phil didn’t know if there was a single person in their graduating class who hadn’t liked her or been helped out by her at least once.

After they’d checked in, Phil realized he wasn’t really sure what to do.  There were a few people milling around the food table, but most everybody else was either still arriving or talking to old friends and acquaintances.

“Do you see any of your old friends?” Clint asked, sticking closely to Phil’s side. He was probably just as, if not more than, uncomfortable as Phil was.  He was suddenly pathetically grateful that Clint was such a good friend to him.  Even if he could never have what he really wanted, having Clint Barton in his life was more than he deserved.

“Please, I was the weird queer kid who was obsessed with Captain America,” Phil snorted. “I didn’t have any friends.”  That part was true.  The only friend Phil had had besides his sister in high school was Jake Decker, and that obviously hadn’t worked out.

“Well, when I was seventeen I didn’t have any friends either,” Clint said, bumping their shoulders together.  He didn’t mention that his lack of friends was because by the time Clint was seventeen he was already a freelance assassin and hadn’t trusted anyone farther than he could throw them.  Details.

“Let’s go get food,” Clint suggested.  He was always interested in free food, and Phil really didn’t see any reason to deny him such a spread, so they headed over.  Clint gleefully began loading up a plate, asking Phil’s opinions on certain foods and adding those as well.  Phil took some coffee and when they sat, Clint pushed the plate so that it was an even distance between them.  It was an intimate move, eating off the same plate, and Phil was kind of in awe of how well Clint was playing this.  There was a possibility that they were wasting his talents by not using him in undercover ops.

“Try the strawberries,” Clint encouraged. “They’re awesome!”

They ate and talked, being mostly anti-social, but Phil was kind of drunk on the way that Clint sat close to him and gripped his thigh under the table.  Every once in a while he’d lean over and kiss Phil on the cheek or just do some casual touching that they didn’t usually partake in.  It was addicting and amazing, and Phil never wanted it to stop.

“Hey!” Janie greeted almost an hour later, when all of the guests had finally showed up and there was a loud buzz of conversation over the music. “You know that you’re supposed to mingle, right?”

“I didn’t even want to come here,” Phil reminded her. “If we want to sit around being hermits, then we can…”

“No way!” Clint interrupted, leaning away from Phil and towards Janie. “I came here so everyone could see your super hot boyfriend, and that’s what’s going to happen.  Got it?”

“Clint, you don’t have to…”

“No, let’s go!” Clint seized him by the arm and practically lifted him out of his seat, and all the while Janie laughed because she was a horrible person.  Clint picked the first group of people he saw and yanked them in to it.

“Hi!” he said cheerfully. “I’m Clint Barton, this is my boyfriend Phil Coulson.  He’s being incredibly anti-social!”

“Phil Coulson?” one of the guys said, sounding incredulous. “I’d forgotten about you!  I’m Shane Cooper! How have you been, man?”

“Oh, you know,” Phil said, trying not to sound as annoyed as he felt. “Not so bad.” They got pulled into random boring conversation, that mostly consisted of ‘remember whens’ that Phil would rather forget.  After a few minutes, Clint seemed to realize that he really didn’t want to be there and excused them.

“What’s up, Phil?” Clint asked, frowning at him. “I’ve seen you make nice with terrorists and you can’t manage it with some people you went to high school with?  Is it me?  Because…”

“It’s not you,” Phil sighed. “You’ve made this bearable, so far.  It’s just.  It’s harder, to compartmentalize when it’s my own past staring me in the face.  That guy, Shane Cooper?  He said he didn’t remember me, but for three years he called me “Fairy Phil” and wrote slurs on my locker.”

“Asshole,” Clint said, glaring darkly at the back of Shane Cooper’s shiny blond head.

“Well, yes,” Phil said. “I mean, he was a kid, he could be a great person now, I don’t know.  But he made my life hell, and he didn’t even remember it.”

“I’m sorry,” Clint said, frowning. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

“Yeah,” Phil agreed. “It was.  I didn’t even want to come…”

“I know,” Clint said. “But we can…”

“Phil Coulson?” Phil held back another heavy sigh and pasted a smile on his face to confront whoever had seen him now.  His heart sunk when he came to face to face with Jake Decker.  He was older, obviously, and his black hair had threads of silver in it, but he looked much the same as he had the last time Phil had saw him.

“Jake,” Phil said, stepping close to Clint just for the reassurance that he was there.  Clint got the hint and pressed against him, wrapping his arm around Phil’s waist again.  He wasn’t quite sure what Jake could possibly want, seeing as the last time they’d spoken had been about ten minutes before Jake had thrown him under the bus.

“Hey,” Jake said, suddenly seeming to realize how very awkward this was.  He glanced over his shoulder, his face looking a bit relieve when he saw another man and waved him over. “This is George, my partner.”

Even though the hurt teenager in Phil was still angry at Jake for all that he had done to make Phil’s last year of high school a living hell, he was kind of relieved that Jake had sorted out his issues and appeared to be comfortable with himself.

“Hi,” Phil said. “This is Clint, my boyfriend.”  George and Clint exchanged nods and then they all stood there, awkward and quiet, for a minute.

“Okay, well, anyway,” Phil started. “We were just about to…”

“Wait!” Jake interrupted, suddenly looking desperate. “Fuck, this always seemed easier in my head.  I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.  For what I did to you back then.  It was really fucked up.”

Out of everything that could have happened, an apology was the last thing Phil expected.  It was definitely warranted, but he’d just never expected to receive one.  Jake must have taken his silence the wrong way, because he hurried to keep speaking.

“I was a stupid kid, and I was confused and scared, and when we got found out I lashed out at you instead of being brave and sticking up for the both of us.  It took a lot of therapy before I was okay with myself,” Jake explained. “I know that doesn’t make it any better, and that I shouldn’t have done it in the first place, but I can’t change that now.  I can only say I’m sorry.  And I am.  Sorry, I mean.”

“It…” Phil paused for a moment. He could feel Clint’s tension, obviously clueless as to what Jake was talking about but completely aware that it was something bad.  He was tensed like he was ready for a fight, even though no amount of physical violence could help what was happening here.  Phil was eternally grateful to him for being so loyal that he would side with Phil, even though he didn’t know what they were talking about.  He’d had a shitty time during high school, yeah, but it had helped make him who he was today.  It had led to him having Clint in his life, and he found that he couldn’t regret that.

“It’s okay,” he said, and he could practically see the relief on both Jake and George’s faces. “It was fucked up, what you did, but I understand why you did it.  I’m glad you’ve sorted yourself out.  Thank you for apologizing.  It took a lot of guts.”

“Yeah,” Jake said, a smile spreading across his face. “Thanks for being so forgiving about it. I’m glad you found someone who can treat you better than I ever could.”  He nodded at them both and then led George away, likely completely aware that it would be far too awkward to stand around and try to make conversation.

As soon as he was gone, Janie appeared, her eyes wide. “Was that Jake Decker?  What happened?”

“He apologized,” Phil said, feeling almost numb about it.

“For accusing you of being a gay predator?” Janie asked, and Clint flinched.

“Yes,” Phil said, kind of wishing she’d just kept her mouth shut. “We’re going to go, Janie.  I am not having a good time.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said softly. “I’ll catch a ride with someone else, okay?”

“Okay,” Phil said, and they both quickly left the gym.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more of a help, sir,” Clint said quietly when they were in the car.

“It’s not you, Clint,” Phil sighed. “High school was awful, and I’m never going to enjoy being around those people, even if I’ve got you to counteract them.  Please don’t think tonight being a flop had anything to do with you.”

Clint nodded, but remained quiet all the way back to the house.  When they got out of the car, Phil stopped him before he could head towards the front door.

“No, come on, I want to show you something,” he said, and he lead Clint through the backyard and out the back gate.  It was darker than he remembered it being, so he used his phone as a flashlight as they crossed the train tracks and made their way through the field and then the thin layer of trees.

“Where are we going?” Clint asked.

“I’m going to show you the thing I loved most about this town,” Phil said. “Coming here is what kept me sane during high school.”

They arrived at the base of the water tower a couple of minutes later, it’s white paint standing out in the dark night.  The ladder was exactly where he remembered it to be, but it was older and a bit more rusted.  When he tested it under his weight, though, it remained sturdy, so he started to climb.  He heard Clint start to climb after him, and for a moment he felt like he was sixteen again, clambering up the ladder to escape from his problems.  

When he reached the platform, he moved out of the way quickly so that Clint could climb up behind him, and then he sat down at the edge of metal walkway, leaning his front against the hand railing and letting his legs dangle over the edge.  Clint settled down next to him and sighed happily.  Phil knew he would love it up here.  Clint had always been a fan of being up high, and the view of the city lights from above at night was certainly a sight to see.

“This is amazing,” Clint sighed, turning to look Phil in the face.

“I know,” Phil returned, grinning easily. “I used to come up here every night and look at the stars and just think about everything.  I accepted that I was gay up here, and I decided to join the army up here.  A couple times I considered jumping off,” he admitted, and Clint went stock still next to him. “But I’m glad I didn’t.”

“I’m glad you didn’t, too,” Clint said softly. “Phil...why did you agree to let me do this when you obviously really didn’t want to?  Why didn’t you just tell me to shut up and mind my own business?”

“I don’t know,” Phil lied, and then he felt that strength in his soul that he always seemed to gain from sitting up here at the top of the world. “I mean...I do know.  I guess I just decided that it wouldn’t be so bad, if I got to pretend for one night that you were really my boyfriend.”

He felt stupid saying it out loud, and he hoped it was dark enough that Clint couldn’t see him blushing.  But he wasn’t called Hawkeye for nothing, and Clint was staring definitely staring at him.

“I’m sorry, I know that…” He was interrupted by Clint very gently pressing their lips together, like he was afraid that Phil might push him away and demand to know what he was doing.  Phil had absolutely zero intentions of doing that.  Instead, he raised and hand and cupped it around the back of Clint’s neck, kissing him more firmly.

“I’ve kind of been in love with you forever,” Clint admitted when they pulled apart finally.

“Me too,” Phil agreed.

Under the stars in the place that had seen so many of the ups and downs of Phil Coulson’s life, Clint Barton kissed him again, and everything was perfect.

 


End file.
